Former Bellator president Scott Coker has big plans for his new
organization. | Lucas Noonan/Bellator MMA
If one thing is inevitable about any Scott Coker-led MMA promotion
it’s this: There will be a tournament.
Earlier this week, Coker announced his return as the head of an
as-yet-to-be-named organization that will launch next year behind a
team of investors and familiar faces from the entertainment
industry. At the time, details were scarce, but the former Strikeforce
and Bellator
MMA leader has since offered some more insight into the
fledgling promotion in an interview with the New York Post.
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According to Coker, the debut date is expected for January 2027 and
will be highlighted by “a gauntlet of events that we produce in the
first half of the year.” This includes a tournament that will
feature a field “way north of eight” fighters. Coker, of course,
was well known for producing tournaments during both his
Strikeforce and Bellator tenures.
In this case, Coker is confident that the tournament format will
aid in the star-building process.
“We’re going to have the tournament format, and the tournament
format leads to new-star development,” Coker said. “And that’s
something I think we’re really good at: fighter procurement. I
think we’ve done it better than anybody else, but we will bring in
free agents to sprinkle from the top down, and that’s going to be a
very robust roster, let’s say, in a year or two.”
While dismissing the rumor that the new organization will be called
Strike MMA, Coker also revealed that the number of expected events
should increase annually for each of the first three years. “Next
year in 2027 we’re going to do 12 events around the world. The year
after it’s gonna go to 18 and the year after it’s gonna go to 22.
That’s kind of the plan right now,” Coker said. “…There’s really no
country (where) we can’t go. We’re gonna go to several countries in
Europe to start; we’re gonna go to Asia and we’re gonna come here
to North America and do fights in the San Francisco Bay area where
I live. Then we’ll go to New York or L.A. — maybe we’ll end up in
Honolulu if we do it right.”
Coker is also confident in the team he is putting together for the
new promotion. That, coupled by his wealth of experience running
other organizations, could set this new venture up for success.
“The one thing that I can promise you is that I’m putting together
a team that I love and that we all get along. We’re all going to be
in alignment when we announce this team,” Coker said.
“Most people, if you said six months, worldwide global league, it’d
be impossible. I think a lot of people would have a hard time. But
you know what? Over the last four decades, all that experience in
Strikeforce, all that experience in [Bellator] MMA, all that
experience has led me to this point in my life where I can execute
this. So I felt very, very good about it.”
A Surplus of Funding
Coker also discussed the funding for the promotion, which he says
easily could have been more than the confirmed $60 million.
“We capped it at [$60 million]. We said, ‘That’s it,’ because then
there’d be a dilution issue between me and my partners,” Coker
said. “I didn’t want the investors to have more control than we
did. We want to have control of the company. So we turned away tens
of millions of dollars of investment. So we are well-funded, and we
are capitalized properly with a great group of investors, great
strategic advisors.”